See how Orange 142 helped a leading cannabis information platform expand reach, increase engagement, and drive qualified users to its dispensary search tool, all while meeting strict regulatory requirements.
|
Value-Added Scale |
Click-Through Rate (CTR) |
|
+20% |
0.18% |
About the Cannabis Brand
Over the past decade, cannabis legalization has moved rapidly across the United States. Colorado and Washington were among the first states to legalize recreational cannabis in 2012. In the years that followed, additional states passed medical and adult-use laws, creating a complex, state-by-state regulatory landscape.
By 2026, the majority of U.S. states have legalized cannabis in some form, whether for medical use, adult use, or CBD-only programs. Consumer interest has expanded alongside legalization. Many people now explore cannabis and CBD for a wide range of reasons, including relaxation, pain management, and to help them go and stay asleep.
But as demand grows, so does the need for reliable information. Consumers want to understand what is legal where they live, what products are available, and where they can purchase them safely and legally.
Against this backdrop, a leading cannabis information platform set out to grow its user base. Its goal was to recruit new, qualified users to its dispensary search tool, helping people navigate local regulations and find legal purchase options in their area.
The Challenge: Complex Regulatory Environment
For marketers in the cannabis and other regulatory industries, growth does not follow the standard advertisers playbook. Cannabis products may be legal in many parts of the U.S., but the advertising environment remains highly restricted and fragmented. Every campaign must navigate a complex mix of platform policies, state-by-state regulations, and strict age requirements, all while still delivering meaningful business results.
For marketers at cannabis brands and information platforms, this creates a unique set of challenges:
- Strict advertising restrictions across major platforms
- Age-gated audience requirements, with campaigns limited to 21+ consumers
- A patchwork of state-by-state legality that limits where and how ads can run
- Reduced access to traditional targeting signals and third-party data
- The need to drive qualified, compliant users, not just scale traffic
These restrictions narrow the path to growth. Campaigns must be precise, compliant, and performance-driven all at once.
The Solution: Orange 142 Regulated Industries Digital Advertising
The cannabis information brand approached Orange 142 for help in executing a digital advertising campaign to drive new users to its information portal.
Orange 142 has deep experience planning and executing media campaigns across industries with strict legal and platform requirements, including alcohol, healthcare, financial services, and cannabis. Today, that experience is formalized in a dedicated high-compliance practice built specifically for regulated advertising.
We combine privacy-safe audience targeting, compliance-aligned supply paths, structured approval workflows, and transparent, ROI-driven measurement to ensure every campaign is safe, effective, and accountable.
This foundation allowed us to design and activate a strategy that met age, geographic, and platform requirements while still reaching high-intent users and driving meaningful engagement with the dispensary search tool.
Tactics included:
- Compliance-first audience design. Orange 142 built audience segments that were tightly aligned with cannabis category requirements, using privacy-safe targeting and strict eligibility controls to ensure ads reached only appropriate users.
- Age-qualified targeting using historical geofencing. We identified devices observed at 21+ venues, such as bars to build an age-qualified audience, ensuring campaigns reached legally eligible consumers.
- Behavioral and interest-based audience signals. Campaigns targeted users with demonstrated interest in cannabis and CBD-related content, helping us reach high-intent audiences without relying on restricted third-party data segments.
- App-based targeting of cannabis research behaviors. We reached users who had cannabis-related apps installed on their devices, including Weedmaps, Leafly, and similar tools, signaling active intent to research or purchase.
- Contextual targeting aligned with legalization and product education. Ads were placed alongside content related to cannabis, CBD, marijuana, and state legalization to reach users actively consuming relevant information.
- Direct publisher access through a private marketplace (PMP). Orange 142 negotiated a direct private marketplace (PMP) agreement with High Times, giving the campaign access to high-quality, compliant inventory in a trusted cannabis content environment.
- Platform and device optimization. We analyzed campaign performance at the device level, leading us to increase investment in Android users who demonstrated higher engagement with the search tool.
Continuous Optimization
Once the campaign launched, the Orange 142 Media Solutions team monitored performance daily and actively optimized media spend towards the highest-performing yet fully compliant tactics. Based on early engagement signals and conversion data, we:
- Built a performance-driven curated list of publishers. We continuously identified top-performing publishers and developed a curated list, concentrating media spend on inventory that delivered the strongest results while maintaining compliance.
- Shifted to a mobile-first delivery strategy. Early performance data showed stronger engagement on mobile devices, prompting the team to reallocate budget to mobile inventory to maximize conversions.
- Further optimized by analyzing device performance. We analyzed campaign performance at the device level, with increased investment in Android users who demonstrated higher engagement with the dispensary search tool.
Results: More Scale, Higher Engagement
The campaign exceeded delivery expectations, generating 20% more value-added impressions and effectively extending its reach beyond planned levels without increasing media spend.
Engagement remained strong, with a 0.18% click-through rate driven by a highly targeted, age-qualified audience actively consuming cannabis-related content.
Beyond reach and engagement, the campaign delivered a meaningful business impact. The brand’s website received a clear increase in qualified site traffic, with users actively interacting with the dispensary search tool. This behavior signaled higher intent and demonstrated that the campaign was reaching audiences ready to explore legal purchase options in their area.
About Orange 142
Orange 142 is a nationwide full-service digital media agency offering a complete suite of marketing services, media solutions, and web development. Our Media Solutions team manages every aspect of a campaign, from planning and activation through optimization and reporting, providing clients with a single, accountable partner from start to finish.
Orange 142 also maintains a dedicated high-compliance practice for regulated industries, helping brands and agencies advertise safely and effectively within strict legal and platform requirements. Through structured onboarding, privacy-safe targeting, and ongoing hands-on oversight, we ensure campaigns are compliant, efficient, and built to deliver measurable results.
